The CBI has suffered a fresh blow as one of its most senior executives joined a rival business lobby group after more than two decades.
Chief policy director Matthew Fell, who stood in as interim director-general when Tony Danker stepped aside earlier this year amid misconduct allegations, is to join Business LDN.
Fell will become director of competitiveness at the London-focused group next month.
His departure comes as the CBI fights for its existence following a sex harassment scandal.
Rivals such as the British Chambers of Commerce are vying to replace it as Britain’s leading business lobby group.
Jumping ship: CBI chief policy director Matthew Fell, who stood in as director-general when Tony Danker stepped aside earlier this year, is to join Business LDN
Fell made no reference to the scandal in a series of tweets announcing his departure.
‘After almost 24 years, I’ve decided the time is right for me to leave the CBI,’ he said.
‘From the financial crisis to a pandemic, I leave knowing the CBI steps up when it matters most.’
CBI director-general Rain Newton-Smith, who took over as director-general last month, paid tribute to Fell for his ‘incredible 24-year service’ to the organisation.
Fell was left in temporary charge when claims about Danker first surfaced in March. Danker was later sacked after a probe but he said he had been made a ‘fall guy’.
Separate allegations had meanwhile emerged about behaviour at the organisation before Danker joined, including rape claims.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, who was director-general for five years until October 2020, insisted at the weekend that there was a ‘really good culture, very far from being a toxic culture’ at the CBI.
Last week John Allan, chairman of Tesco and a former president of the CBI, was forced out after the supermarket said allegations about him – including that he groped female colleagues – risked ‘becoming a distraction’.
He described the claims as ‘utterly baseless’.
